I’m enjoying my coffee this morning as I attempt to breathe through my nose. Attempt is the key word, as I’ve been miserable since mowing the lawn yesterday. But mowing the hay lawn had to be done as Mother Nature has seen fit to rain on us nearly every day for the last week and a half and yesterday was the first day where the lawn dried out. Mr. Muse took the hedge trimmer out and cleared the fence back in the trees, pruned up a black cherry tree so it wouldn’t slap me in the face when I mow and then we tackled weeding and dead-heading tulips and daffodils in a few beds. Thankfully, we didn’t have to deal much with mosquitos due to the stiff breeze all day. I said my thanks for that.

My many varieties of irises are also starting to pop open in the last couple days, so it has been a real treat to see and smell them again. I collect irises of all shapes and sizes, but I really love the big, bearded German irises. Mr. Muse goes along with my collection and is determined to buy a red one when they are finally developed. Most of what I have is in the purple color scheme those I’ve acquired some really lovely varieties that look like watercolor painting with how their colors blend. I am also always on the lookout for what I call “Ditch Irises”. These are irises that grow randomly in ditches, usually on back country roads and are indicative of a farmhouse once standing nearby. Since I don’t know the varieties of my Ditch Irises, I mark down where I found them (road name and township) and the date. If it’s a large patch – I’ll snap up a shovelful of them. If I only spot a few rhizomes, I take just one and baby it. I also collect lilies, mostly daylilies and “Ditch Lilies” (also, usually daylilies).

All that talk about collecting plants for the garden has me once again pondering how expensive my hobbies are! Birding (mostly feeding the birds), cooking/baking (including kitchen gadgetry), modeling, gardening and horses. Oh, there are more, but those have to be the biggest suck of funds. Mr. Muse isn’t much different as he is often out in the woodshop working on something, be it his boat (a 22′ catamaran) or his wooden candy machines. He also is a model railroader and for the garden he has a soft spot for unusual evergreen trees; our yard has two California Sugar Pine seedlings, a Giant Sequoia seedling and this year a Korean Spruce upon which all of the new growth is bright white was purchased and planted. Our Sugar Pines and Giant Sequoia will take long after we’ve died many years to reach their full heights, but how COOL will it be for some future owners of this property to say they have these gigantic trees on their property?

Speaking of trees, in a few weekends, Mr. Muse and I will be joining a bunch of friends camping. We’ll be hitting the hiking trails and hopping in our kayaks on the water, and we’ll stop at at least one winery that we’ve visited before in this area. Since this is our first camping venture Post-Gluten-Free, I have pulled out my Pie Iron Recipes booklet and we’ll be picking out a few things to make for our trip. I’m pro-pudgie-pie-iron cuisine, having advanced all the way up to searing beef tenderloin steaks and cooking to a perfect medium in the iron. Add to that a coal-baked potato and a foil packet of “sauteed” veggies and you have a fantastic meal at the end of the day. I was also THRILLED to see that the Copp’s Grocery store on the West side of Madison has Udi’s Gluten Free breads and hamburger and hotdog buns in their freezer case now. Pudgie pies made with GF bread may commence! AND I can have a hotdog on a BUN! While I don’t miss bread for the day-to-day, there are just some things that NEED some bread with them, like hamburgers, hotdogs and pudgie pies. I also need to get myself some more Kinnickinnic graham-style crackers for s’mores.

A funny thing about s’mores and marshmallows: I ate ONE obligatory marshmallow, nicely blackened toasted over a campfire every year and a few minis added to my cold-weather hot cocoa. I was not a fan of marshmallows; they were too sweet in my opinion. I don’t like sweet tea for that very reason (yes, let the hate mail from those south of the Mason Dixon begin… wait, sweet tea seems to be pervasive everywhere now – I’m sure the hate mail will come from all over). Now, Post-Gluten-Free, I’m all over the “S’more”. Perhaps this oddity has arisen from having so many other things that I had prefered “taken away” due to their containing delicious, forbidden gluten? That’s my working theory anyway – until I come to a solid conclusion, s’more S’mores for me, please!

Now, before I get into the articles and videos I’ve shared this week on the Book of Faces, I have some questions for you!

What are your hobbies? Do you consider any of them to be “expensive” or ARE they expensive?Do you go camping? Tent or Pop-up (let’s face it, RVing is NOT camping)? Do you have a favorite campfire meal? What is it?

You know, that’s probably correct. I could get by with just a book and binoculars for birding, but I like to feed the birds too, so my budget for seed is… well – I have really well-fed birds around my house (and squirrels). ATVs are fun – though it’s been quite a while for me having been on one and I’ve not gone mountain biking or scuba diving. Not yet. I have a cousin who LOVES mountain biking and I’m an avid snorkeler, I think that scuba diving will be the natural progression.